Eddels Shoes (Pty)
1904: When he was discharged from a Fort Napier regiment where he was sergeant saddler and boot maker, Charles Creed Whitfield Eddels started Eddels as a humble boot repair shop employing four people. From there he diversified into making leggings for the South African Police. He later started shoe manufacture with imported uppers but South African leather soles in Theatre Lane in Pietermaritzburg. With assistance from James Craib, an accountant and later Managing Director, and as a result of growth the company moved to new premises a couple of times.
1913: Realising it needed more equipment and working capital to fund growth, the Company was floated successfully as a limited liability company with a capital of ₤45,000. Disposing of his shares, Charles Eddels left the company to join the British Army at outbreak of World War 1 and never returned to South Africa afterwards.
The Company continued under professional management which included English shoemakers and an American, George Berry, who modernised equipment and commissioned the first advertising. On retirement he was replaced by Harry Kendall
who did much to bring Eddels through the great depression into the modern era.
1921: Eddels introduced ladies shoes as addition to its men’s ranges, and these became significant contributors by 1925.
1927: With the expansion of the business the factory moved to the premises it now occupies in Victoria Road in Pietermaritzburg.
1937: Premises were bought across Victoria Road to make women’s, maids’, children’s and infants’ shoes. This was later
changed into a subsidiary called Sandals.
1944: Eddels and its subsidiaries were bought by Edworks (1936) Ltd which by 1954 constituted the largest Footwear group
in South Africa. John Drake branded shoes were top choice in South Africa at this stage, but were soon complimented with
America’s equivalent, Jarman, when the brand was franchised to Eddels.
1981: Unfortunately Eddels fell on hard times in the early 80’s with the steady demise of the third-generation-run Edworks
Group and the company was bought at a bargain price in by the Calan group which soon became Conshu (1985) when
the group listed on the JSE.
1987: Conshu acquired all of SA Breweries shoe interests. Eddels flourished during the sanctions era under the stewardship
of Dick Santrucek (who left to run the Cape factories of the Group) and then Jonathan Hallowes (who retired when KAP
International Holdings Ltd. acquired Conshu).
1997: John Comley and his management team (Deena Moodley, MD, Richard Starmer, Marketing Director, Jeff Cassim,
IT & Admin Director, Mark Venness, Production Director, Jai Deepnarain, HR Director) and a Work Force Trust acquired
Eddels from KAP in a management buy-out.
2011: This team are currently steering the company successfully through uneven playing fields created by a flood of cheap
imports from the East. The Company has successfully pioneered new production methodology which has enabled it,
uniquely in the world, to manufacture to lead and through-put times of less than a week in a drive to provide retailers with
reduced cost and reduced risk quick-response logistics and replenishment to counter Chinese subsidised low prices.
Eddels Shoes (Pty) Programmes
National Certificate: Footwear Processes (Level 2)
National Certificate: Clothing, Textile, Footwear and Leather Manufacturing Processes (Level 2)
Eddels Shoes (Pty) Contact
CONTACT PERSON Jai Deepnarain
Tel: 033 342 8111
Fax: 086 681 3961 / 033 342 8260
